The story of Eufrosinia Kersnovskaya, the author of a unique prison chronicle / Redaktsiya

Euphrosinia Kersnovskaya challenged the Stalinist repressive machine, leaving us her memories and a unique archive of drawings that can be described as a GULAG comic book. The narrative explores her life from her noble origins to her experiences in the Soviet camps, highlighting moments of horror, sarcasm, fun, and an unexpected affirmation of life. At 00:00 we ask whether she defeated the Gulag; at 03:33 we learn how she escaped; at 10:27 we discover her origins; at 15:28 we see the arrival of the Soviets; at 21:46 we learn about her deportation; at 28:31 we hear the rules of life in the GULAG; at 31:48 we learn about the special settlement; at 35:03 we find out why she tried to kill her boss; at 39:28 we learn why she fled to Tomsk; at 41:15 we see the Soviet hinterland; at 42:52 we learn about the investigation and her sentence; at 46:30 she avoided being shot; at 48:20 we hear about the Siberian camps; at 49:44 she began drawing; at 51:11 we explore inner freedom; at 57:22 she was given a new term; at 1:00:15 we learn about Norillag; at 1:03:32 the camp hospital; at 1:06:43 her role as a medical artist; at 1:08:42 why she worked in the mine; at 1:10:57 why she consciously endured suffering; at 1:13:03 whether she was a feminist; at 1:13:53 that she had never been in love; at 1:15:01 her liberation; at 1:17:01 the camp’s reaction to Stalin’s death; at 1:18:43 her reunion with her mother; at 1:22:21 her new home; at 1:24:29 how neighbors treated her; at 1:27:00 why she began writing memoirs; at 1:31:10 how and when they were first published; at 1:40:10 her feelings about the collapse of the USSR; at 1:41:36 why her memories differ from Shalamov and Solzhenitsyn; at 1:42:45 whether it is possible to defeat the system.